It pays to be in a union in tough times

As most Americans endured the high unemployment, layoffs, pay freezes or cuts of two recessions, police officers and firefighters in Northeastern Pennsylvania's three largest cities fared a whole lot better.

The base salaries of the men and women paid to protect and serve citizens in Wilkes-Barre, Hazleton and Scranton rose at a pace well above inflation and the median incomes of other full-time workers in each city, a Sunday Times analysis shows.

The hikes produced salaries that placed police and firefighters in each city in the top quarter of all wage-earners in their cities.

They gained despite the national economic downturn and despite the cities' ongoing struggles to balance their budgets. Taxes in all three cities rose sharply in at least one of the last three years.

At least one union leader sharply decried criticism of the salaries. Scranton firefighters union president John Judge accusing the newspaper of skewing the numbers and fostering an "us versus them mentality."

"You guys want to continue to perpetuate this backwards mentality in the city of Scranton, print your stupid article. But I'm so sick and tired of hearing it," Judge said.

Gerald Cross, executive director of the Pennsylvania Economy League's Central Division, Scranton's financial recovery coordinator, blamed the spiraling salaries on the law that requires binding arbitration of contract disputes between cities and their police and firefighter unions.

Binding arbitration means a neutral arbitrator, after listening to evidence, settles a contract dispute rather than the cities and their unions negotiating a settlement.

"It isn't against fire and police," Cross said of his opinion that the law should change. "The discussion is how can we continue to afford public services, and continue to restrict municipalities abilities to pay for them â¦ No one argues that a firefighter's job isn't valuable, a policeman's job isn't valuable. It's a risky job."

This story compares only base salaries and no other compensation from 2000 and 2012 to the median salary of full-time male workers during the same period. It uses the consumer price index at the beginning of 2000 and the end of 2012. For a full explanation of the methodology, see the related story.

The overall inflation rate for the period was 36.5 percent as the nation went through two recessions, one that accelerated after 9/11 and the other, the Great Recession, after the housing market collapse in 2008.

Millions of people lost their jobs and millions of others had their hours or pay cut, frozen or only minimally increased.

Wilkes-Barre firefighters' salaries rose from $37,366 in 2000 to $54,277 at the end of 2012, a 45.3 percent hike, or almost 9 percentage points above the rate of inflation. Police did even better, going from $37,570 to $57,171.24, a 52.2 percent jump and almost 16 points higher than inflation.

By comparison, the median salary of a male city resident who works full-time, as in Scranton and Hazleton, failed to keep pace with inflation. That salary rose from $28,737 to $36,643, or 27.5 percent.

In Scranton, based only on the salary increases required in two contract arbitration awards, a Scranton firefighter's top base salary rose 49.5 percent between the start of 2000 and the end of 2012 while the top base pay for police was up 53.7 percent from $37,062 to $56,960.

The firefighters' increase is based on an increase in salary from $35,937 in 2000 to $53,726 in 2012, but firefighters actually started getting paid at an even higher rate at the start of 2011 for another reason.

Looking to cut down on overtime and over the fruitless objections of the firefighters, the city, using a provision in the first arbitration ruling, extended the firefighters work week from 42 to 48 hours and increased their pay proportionally, 14.3 percent. By the end of 2012 firefighters were earning $61,401.52, or 70.9 percent higher than in 2000.

By comparison, a male city resident who works full time earned $30,829 in 2000, according to the 2000 census. By 2012, a census estimate showed that worker earning $37,941 a year. That's a 23.1 percent increase, well below the inflation rate and far below what the police and firefighters received.

Hazleton's police and firefighter top base salaries actually tracked closest to the 36.5 percent inflation rate. Firefighters' salaries rose from $34,274 in 2000 to $47,471, a 38.5 percent increase. For police, the top salary rose from $36,648 to $54,337, a 48.3 percent increase.

Both still fared a lot better than the full-time male workers, whose $31,144 median wage in 2000 rose to $35,499, only a 14 percent increase and well below the inflation rate.

What happened in Wilkes-Barre

Wilkes-Barre's public safety contracts were decided by a combination of arbitration rulings and contract negotiations during the 12-year period. For 2004 to 2007, the police union and former Mayor Tom McGroarty negotiated raises (3.713 to 4 percent) that were higher actually higher than what an arbitrator awarded for the years 2008-2010 (3 to 3.25 percent) under Mayor Tom Leighton.

Back in 2003, as they ran against each other for mayor, Leighton accused McGroarty of handing out the police raises because he was facing re-election.

For firefighters, their 2003-2010 salaries resulted from negotiated contracts and the pay hikes ranged from a wage freeze in 2004 to 4.32 percent.

City firefighters union president Mike Bilski blamed frustrations with what police and firefighters are paid on the lack of economic growth locally.

"If you do comparables between us and the largest cities with a better tax base, we're about level with them, but they have more industry around," Bilski said.

Bilski pointed out firefighters suffered layoffs over the years, took a wage freeze in 2004, began paying part of their health-care premiums and took cuts in future pensions during the 12 years, but he acknowledged "we've done pretty well in negotiations."

"I guess we do okay for the valley," he said. "Is it fair? This is a tough one. Is it fair that people get none and some people get some? We don't do as well as others as far as raises and other locals across the state and country. Just in the neighborhood, some of the locals got 4 or 5 percent raises. Even some of the smaller ones do better than we do â¦ We chose our own profession. You know what the pluses and minuses are and we're paid a fair wage and we do a great job."

Efforts to reach police union officials and Leighton were unsuccessful.

Cross said police and firefighters benefit from the arbitration process, which is insulated from the "market conditions" that other workers must live with. In the meantime, arbitrators regularly point to higher police and firefighter salaries in other cities to justify award raises in the cases before them.

That produces an ongoing "leap-frog effect," with arbitrator repeating the method over and over and producing ever-higher salaries, he said.

Legislation pending before the state General Assembly would require arbitrators to more substantially consider "local ability to pay these wages."

Cross denied the change aims to hurt police and firefighters. He suggested police and firefighters could also benefit if city fire and police departments could serve adjacent boroughs and townships in exchange for taxing those boroughs to help pay for full-time police and firefighter coverage.

But Art Martynuska, president of the Pennsylvania Professional Firefighters Association, said the binding arbitration law works fine and serves as a fair way to resolve disputes without reverting to the days that police and firefighters could strike.

Most contracts are settled through negotiation and never reach arbitration and the idea that arbitrators can't consider a city's ability to pay is wrong, he said. He's watched numerous contract arbitration cases over the years and both sides present evidence of a city's ability to pay, he said.

"Every arbitration I've been involved with has that testimony," he said. "It does make for equitable distribution because both sides get to argue their case."

bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com

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